Marietta Wins Award for Real-Time Crisis Management Tool

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) presented Marietta the Create Award for the city's innovation and use of technology.

When a major public safety event occurs in Marietta, such as a train derailment, storm or parade, the city's department heads meet in Marietta's crisis management center (CMC) to coordinate the city's response. This helps Marietta efficiently respond when an emergency occurs and improves the city's operations during a crisis.

With the city's online emergency management application, public safety workers in the field are able to enter data about the emergency into a mobile computer in their vehicles. Employees in the CMC are also able to add data simultaneously.

This information goes into a database to visually display all the elements of the incident on a citywide map. By seeing the overall data in real-time, city leaders are able to comprehend the scope of the emergency, secure the closest and best resources to respond quickly to each incident, make better informed decisions and help save lives.

The application has been a success in live and training scenarios including a severe storm, citywide events including the Fourth of July and two full-scale city exercises.

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